I'm just going to stop being coy about my feelings towards the Health Insurance Industry. Some of the companies are harboring criminals who steal money from the people who are insured by them. I don't think there is any other way to characterize things such as this other than outright theft.
This is a quote from an article on Democracy Now!
Read it and weep:
"Probe: Insurers Force Consumers to Overpay Billions in Health Costs
A congressional probe has found private health insurers have forced consumers to pay billions of dollars in medical costs that the insurers should have paid. In a new report, the Senate Commerce Committee says insurers have relied on faulty databases that have led to underpaying on millions of valid claims for out-of-network medical care. Patients have been forced to make up the difference. The report says the databases’ errors were easily disguised because insurers have failed to properly inform consumers on how they calculate charges for out-of-network costs. The databases are owned by a company named Ingenix. The firm has a financial incentive to underpay consumers: it’s a subsidiary of UnitedHealth Group, one of the nation’s largest private insurers. In addition to UnitedHealth, at least seventeen other leading insurance companies have relied on Ingenix’s data.
Ex-Cigna Exec: Insurance Companies “Dump the Sick”
The findings were released as the Senate Commerce Committee heard testimony from an insurance executive who’s now criticizing his former industry. The executive, Wendell Potter, was most recently a public relations executive for the insurer Cigna until last year. In his testimony, Potter said the industry has deliberately misled consumers with confusing paperwork to deter them from trying to recoup unwarranted payments. Potter said, “they confuse their customers and dump the sick, all so they can satisfy their Wall Street investors.” Potter also said insurers are using what he called “fear tactics” to derail proposals for a public health plan out of fear of losing profits."
Nice, huh?
What I don't understand is why we have all these inquiries and then Our Elected Representatives go right back to recommending that instead of the Single Payer we want we would required hand more money over to these pirates.
ReplyDeleteGood question, Ellen.
ReplyDeleteI think it's because, like many things, including that stupid bail out of the gangsta bankas, they had already set up an agenda. All they had meant to do was to get out the pirate tug boats, so to speak, and shove the Ship of State - with all of us on it - in the direction that they wanted it to go in the first place, this was pre-ordained. After all, we are all too stupid to know what's best for ourselves, or we are looked upon as too lazy to keep our eyes on them.
That's why Ellen.
I think, unfortunately, it's as simple as "follow the money." To get elected requires a campaign war chest. The source of funds isn't Joe Citizen, it's lobbyists. If you take their money, you owe them. So you vote to protect their interests.
ReplyDeleteI think the only solution to this is to get money out of election campaigns. Or to limit it to a single-payer (like govt.) source. Anyone wants to contribute pays into a pot, and allowances are doled out from that pot, with no strings attached.
Oh! Pogo I sent you an email telling you that your comment was lost. Duh.. I was looking for it in another post. It's been a very, VERY strange day for me.
ReplyDeleteI agree that we will always have bought and owned politicians as long as people have to have millions of dollars just to run a campaign. This is just a fact of life. We don't even need to have films made about this, it's pure theatrics already. And a lot of money goes into "costume" and "make-up" as well as "lighting" and script writers.
How far will it all go? Time will tell.